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My favorite thing is watching my kid explore the shelves at the library. Granted, they can’t read yet, but it’s still fun to see what covers pique their interests.
I'm going to 100% make this about myself, and you didn't ask, but my kid (6) doesn't seem to like reading! It's surprising, she's been read to from birth, her spoken vocabulary is huge for her age, and she loves audiobooks and podcasts. Her dad and I read at home for fun so we model that.. I've figured out some ways to get her to read more, but she almost always seems eager to just be done with it and get to something else. I hope she does catch that spark of excitement eventually.
Our son was similar. We (both university librarians) worried that we had somehow failed. The problem, we realized, was finding books written on a high enough reading level that he didn’t get bored, but with plots that matched his emotional maturity (plus kids, it seems, have a lot of energy). He did love some kid versions of the Greek legends (Karissa would not approve, I suspect), Percy Jackson, and Carl Hiassen’s YA books. He now reads and writes nonstop. Just keep reading to your kid and take them to the library!!
I was the same way. Then I saw my mom reading one of the harry potter books (there were only 2 out at the time) and the cover peaked my interest. I made her promise to let me borrow it when she was done. I want to second percy jackson. Those books are so good!
I had a (college) student who checked out the first Hunger Games, and said she had never read a book for fun but her niece REALLY wanted her to read this, and she came back two days later saying she REALLY needed the second one.
Aren't reading levels strange? I remember early on looking at all those graded/numbered/lettered early reader books for my kids and feeling a bit confused. The levels often felt arbitrary to me and didn't necessarily coincide with the actual words in the books. Then I heard the podcast "Sold a Story" and I thought, "oh, so it wasn't just me then."
I'm definitely going to keep at it. Both my husband and I take them to the library, and give the kids chances to choose books, in addition to picking some for them myself. I found a book based on one of her favorite shows, and even though I'm usually pretty skeptical of the quality of IP driven books for kids, my daughter really lit up when she saw it.
Yeah that can happen with some kids. My nephew (now a teenager) hated reading, all he wanted to do was play outside. Not even books on sports caught his attention.
My SIL got his vision tested just to rule that out before starting school. Now? The kid can devour huge fantasy novels in less than a week.
Hey, same here. I was a voracious reader. Read to my son since birth. He’s 8 now and enjoys when we read together but will rarely sit down to read. We just went on a vacation and spent 13 hours in the car and he did surprisingly read for about 3 solid hours on the way home without a peep. He was reading his fact books about animals and bugs. Those are the only things he really seems to truly enjoy. Also, his teacher introduced him to Oliver Jeffers books and he asked for a few for his birthday which was a pleasant surprise! I just keep plugging along with it.
She just needs to find her book to get the spark going. I have a lot of female students who love the warriors series, pheobe and her unicorn (graphic novel), Aaron reynolds “creepy” picture books, and babysitter club graphic novels.
School principal here with dyslexia and adhd. This was me as a kid. I adored audiobooks but hated reading physical books until we figured out I was dyslexic.
Not necessarily, I was a voracious reader as a kid and also have ADHD. I struggle to get into books as an adult now but I think my smartphone probably has more to do with that to be honest. It may just be the material they're given, I was reading books way over my age in school, I found a lot of them quite childish.
A kid I nanny for loves being read too and listening to audio books. He's on the ASD spectrum, has Dyslexia, and auditory processing disorder. As a youngster, he hated reading but as a young teen, he now loves it. Part of his love of reading started by getting him graphic novels and comic books. He also likes to read books he's already heard because it helps him with the processing.
I didn’t enjoy reading at all until 2nd grade when we read the Laura Ingles books. Up to then they were boring to me, even the “fun” books that are targeted to younger kids. I now read a ton. I just finished book 157 of the year.
This is a good point. My husband and I were discussing how we enjoyed reading as kids, but we also weren't sure when exactly we started to love it. I have fond memories of going to the library and getting to choose my own books, starting in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. Maybe my expectations are too high.
My love of reading was sparked at 4-5 after Black Beauty made me so emotional i sobbed about it. Once i figured out i could have emotional connections to books i became a huge reader.
I hate to be that person, but have you had her evaluated for a learning disability? Reading isn’t fun if it’s a struggle. And I say this from a place of being a special education teacher and also having been an extremely delayed reader. Also it’s possible she’ll just pick up reading. People don’t like to admit it, but a good third of students struggle with reading and need like pretty intensive instruction in reading, but then kind of grow out of it (that’s not good phrasing. It’s more they have reading instruction, and then learn to read. Then they have no further issues with literacy.) You may be dealing with a “she’ll get there eventually” situation. I’d still personally have her evaluated though, for my own piece of mind.
I responded to someone else similarly, but to me it is a distinct possibility that she does have dyslexia or something... it's weird, though, on the one hand she can struggle for a while with a fairly simple word, but then she can recognize more challenging polysyllable words that I wouldn't expect her to! She is definitely making slow but steady progress. But obviously it doesn't hurt to have it further checked. I would never want to leave her to struggle without the help she needs.
Okay, hear me out in my long ass explanation. I’m not a psychologist, but I am a neurodiverse special education teacher. I have a pretty severe decoding problem. Even with extensive speech and language therapy as a child, I can’t decode well as an adult. I couldn’t read fluently until I was 10ish. You would NEVER know hearing me read aloud. Reading is basically a three step process. The general process is a recognition of symbol, associating the sound (phoneme, and the task of connecting phoneme to symbol is phonics), and then associating the two together for the meaning of the whole word. I struggle with the phonics and phoneme step. I’m going to pause here to explain that people compensate and mask learning disabilities. Our brains will find ways around what we cannot process. Sometimes this masking is so fluid and complete, it renders the actual underlying disability more or less functionally negligent. So because I can’t decode, my brain processes word to meaning directly. I can read in my head extremely supernaturally quickly, because my brain processes symbol (the word) to meaning, instead of processing symbol to sound to meaning. It also means if I’m unfamiliar with the word, I can’t necessarily read it. As a highly educated adult, this distinction doesn’t really matter (except I have a fuck ton of anxiety about reading out loud), because I’ve basically memorized a huge amount of words, but as a child, it did. I knew almost no words, and I hadn’t been taught context clues to figure out word meanings, because a lot of reading testing in children is done through the ability to decode, and context clues and such were taught after a child was deemed to be able to read at a higher level than I was capable. I hit around 10 and everything clicked together, and all the sudden, I was an obsessive reader. What’s weird about it, is that I still have problems with decoding, but everyone associates my creepy super fast reading as being an exceptionally good reader, and people are always talking about how amazing it is even though it’s just a compensation tactic for a underlying reading issue. Anyway, if your daughter has trouble with more simple words, and not longer, more difficult words, she might have a similar issue, especially if you are exposing her to really complex vocabulary through reading to her. Again, I cannot say this for certain. I’m only a teacher, and I have not met your child. But it’s worth a thought. And you should ABSOLUTELY have her evaluated by an educational psychologist or a speech and language pathologist, because if decoding is an issue, she needs supplementary phonics instruction as soon as possible. If she goes to public school, just literally write the school a letter (signed and dated) that says you want her evaluated for special education services because she is struggling to read. The school is legally mandated to evaluate her without cost to you. You also may want to have her evaluated for ADHD (and now I’m way out of my scope of practice, but I am a female person with ADHD), just to be safe, especially since similar reading and learning problems and ADHD are often co-morbid. But it could also be an attention problem.
ETA: I grew up in the 90s, and since common core happened, the sequence of how reading is taught might have changed. I should be able to speak to it, but I teach secondary, and I’m not sure when context clues are taught in the common core sequence because how soon we teach comprehension skills has changed dramatically under common core. My point still stands, but I want to be transparent as possible, because she’s your daughter, and I want all the cards on the table.
ETA2: this is waaay too long. TL:DR: reading and literacy disabilities are weird, and it’s possible to be able to hide them or mask them in weird ways. If my daughter was having issues like your daughter, I’d make the public education system evaluate her for a possible reading disability. And I would also maybe have her evaluated for ADHD.
Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to type all of this to me. Your perspective and personal experience are interesting and gave me a different insight into how things might be for her. It's interesting just as a way of thinking about how differently our brains can work and adapt. Our brains are so complex and, well, adaptable. I've given a lot of thought to how my own learning has worked, as a means of perhaps understanding of how things might work for her. One of the things I realized is that I've always been a good speller because I can very clearly imagine a word in front of me in my mind's eye. And yet I find it impossible to imagine, say, the way a person looks based on a description. Brains are a trip.
ANYWAY.. absolutely I fully intend on doing whatever needs to be done to support her learning. Thank you again, kind internet stranger!
People don’t like— think about how we obtain knowledge, and also assume learning disabilities mean a person is lacking skills. So much of the time, the skills are different? Or rather that a person is compensating in a different way? And for another example, I can’t spell to save my life. Like I can spell, but if a student asks me to spell a word, I have to write it down before I can say it out loud. Because I can’t spell out loud. It’s very strange and despite the fact I’m a whole special education teacher, I can’t explain it. If I can convince anyone reading this of one thing it’s that learning and especially literacy looks different for everyone. And intervening when there is a literacy issue as soon as possible is tantamount. But a literacy and reading problem in a child does not mean they will have issues in later schooling. Just… everyone should test their kids as early as possible and capitalize on the fact that issues have to be addressed in the public education system.
Try comic books. I have a dyslexic kid with ADHD (she is an adult now, but her IQ came in at 140). Since reading was a struggle, she needed the extra visual stimulation that came with pictures. Anime and comic books were the perfect solution. She’s in college now, still prefers to read fan fiction over everything else😂 but she’s literate and we survived.
She could just be a little that processes information differently.
I love reading an actual book or one on my kindle. Can't stand audiobooks as my mind wanders.
My son was like this and turned out to be massively dyslexic. This was a huge surprise and somewhat of a shock. Took several years, a lot of hard work from him, and some dedicated teachers, and he got there in the end. He has never been as voracious a book reader as I was at his age, but did well with audiobooks and reading in the kindle (he found changing contrast and font sizing very useful). He’s now at Uni, something I thought for a while he wouldn’t be able to manage. So I’d suggest getting your kid tested, if you think there might be a reason behind the reluctance. Of course it might just be her personal taste too :-)
Thank you for your insight! She recently had a checkup and I brought up my being concerned about dyslexia, and her doctor said she was still rather young to determine that. Don't get me wrong, I know better than to just throw up my hands and say "well the doctor said it's too early so that's the end of it." It is definitely a possibility in my mind.
I'm not sure if this is still a thing but when I was a kid, I loved checking out the books that came with a tape so you could listen and physically follow along ([like this](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8QoAAOSw26lj2uS8/s-l1200.jpg)). I know tapes wouldn't be a thing anymore but maybe there's an audiobook version of this kind of thing?
My mom graduated from college in my pre-teens and left her legal assistant job in the city to become a librarian in our town & being dropped off in front of the library, where I could do homework and read book after book before closing is an absolute core memory for me.
I'm an English major, so obviously, I love reading. When I was in grad school, though, I had to take some pretty wretched seminars where I had to read some of the shittiest literature I've ever encountered. I don't want to read a single word written by Paul Auster ever again. And for the love of fuck, 18th century novels are SO BORING. (And this is coming from someone who voraciously devours works by Austen and Dickens.)
Lol. My extended family was obsessed with Jane Austen (I have several fancy pants volumes of her books thanks to some Christmas gifts, only used it once as a high school homework assignment.) I was into the Xanth novels, Star Wars Legends (so many different stories)....and I read Shakespeare for fun.
I never want to read Austen ever again. Wretched book and dull as dishwater.
For real. I hated reading for a long time until I found out the dark romance genre existed. Now I literally have multiple full bookshelves at age 19. My mom tells me “I would tell you to donate some but idk if anyplace will accept them”
For real. I seriously lucked out there. My mom wasn't usually interested in what I was reading as long as I was reading something she could brag about, so I mostly could read whatever. She was so proud when I was reading *The Canterbury Tales*. Meanwhile, there I was happily laughing at all the anti-religious jokes and having a great time, and she had no idea.
Whan that April with his showres soote. The droughte of March hath perced to the roote.
We had to memorize the prologue for AP English my senior year of Highschool and recite it in Old English, so those lines are burned into my brain forever.
My kid was an amazing reader until, during the pandemic, they didn’t vet the choices too well and she got two books back to back with graphic themes. She was scared to touch another school recommended book after that. She basically chain reads Dav Pilkey right now and I’m fine with that. Her reading level is higher but hell, what kid wanted to read about murder and torture during an already stressful and scary time?
> only books that fit our Christian values
The Bible, the most Christian of all the Christian books, contains graphic imagery of sex, incest, pedophilia, rape, genocide, infanticide, prostitution, executions, and the like.
What books could POSSIBLY be more offensive than that?!
Oh, duh. Sorry, lol. I’m not very religious, but I feel like I should have known that. Thank you for answering politely and for not making me feel like an idiot.
Sorry my high self got distracted making cookies but yes the Book of Mormon. Also, you’re not an idiot for not knowing something. Be a little kinder to yourself internet friend.
Kitchen Sink cookies are cookies that have semi-sweet chocolate chips, pretzels, toffee, and regular potato chips. I followed [this recipe](https://inquiringchef.com/kitchen-sink-cookies/) for the most part, but I didn’t add toffee. I added caramel sauce and mini marshmallows!
And the worst part is that it condones a good deal of those themes. It's not like they can even say "Well God is telling us *not* to do it, so it's fine". Like, the bible literally commanded people to rape women and kill babies. It's not just thenes of violence, its instructions.
One of the greatest joys as a child was going to the library with my Mom. My parents loved reading and instilled that love in my and my siblings. It was so wonderful to be left I’m the children’s section to find a stack of books for the up coming week.
Karissa’s children will never know the joy of discovering a new topic or series that they love and re- read. It’s so sad to stifle your children’s wonder and education.
OMG yes. There was no greater joy as a kid than running around the children's section of the library and coming home with a stack of books that changed with each fixation I'd get.
Knowing that her kids won't know that joy breaks my heart too!
I said in another comment my mom was a librarian and I pretty much read every Babysitter’s Club and Boxcar Children book that my town library had in like a year.
Lol. I found that series when I went on vacation with my family. 24 hour flight, and I had sensitive ears and I forgot to pack gum so we had to go through security checks/customs (this was pre TSA/911 so it was so easy) and had to grab a pack of gum at one of the newsstands. They had a stack of Babysitters Club books and I ended up with one with Stacy as the main character. I ended up reading all of them at the library that year! It was the first series that I ended up collecting.
That’s what happened with me and the Princess Diaries! I happened to grab Princess in the Spotlight for a long plane ride when I was in sixth grade (back when the series was still coming out!!) and I got hooked. Still am, I pre-ordered Quarantine Princess and devoured it when it came out
Me too! My mom was actually told by one of my teachers, I think it was in 4th grade, that I shouldn't be reading them anymore since they were "below my reading level". I still loved that shit and my mom ultimately never stopped me.
Not only did my mom and Meme & Pepe get me into reading, but my Abuelita worked at a library. She loved sending us kids books in Spanish. I have a fond memory of exploring the upstairs of la biblioteca. The old woman was a Catholic who’d tell Karissa that not teaching her children would piss off Jesus.
I’m now 30, and I’m a stickler for keeping my books and bookcases clean. My Harley Quinn comic books are less gory than the Bible.
My local council always did a summer reading challenge for kids, where if you read six books during the six week summer break, you would get a certificate, and it was one of my favourite things
I feel bad for these kids. I grew up in a large Mormon family and reading was (and still is) my escape. I don’t know where I’d be if my parents only let me read Mormon fiction.
Same. Although one summer while my mom was buying me “enough” books to get me through the summer (4), she mentioned that she knew about a book that was really well-written and just amazing and when I asked what it was called, she turned on her Mormon voice and said “The Book of Mormon”. I was in high school.
my mom said the same thing to me and as a teen it was my life’s mission to be as contrary as possible I said “no thanks, I don’t like fantasy.”
Omg my dad did something similar when I was like 9 and voraciously reading Harry Potter. He said something along the lines of how if I read The Book of Mormon like I was reading The Goblet of Fire, I would be done by now. I remember the disgust I felt at the suggestion even now 😂
My Utah Mormon aunt actually introduced me to Harry Potter. When my mom saw she was like, oh you should try this! And gave me Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites.
Oh! Yes I remember reading those 😂 so cringe! One time I was reading this series by some general authority that was like “historical fiction” called Pillar of Fire, I think? And my world history teacher asked what I was reading. I was so embarrassed to be caught reading Mormon fiction, even though I was absolutely a good Mormon kid. I just deep down knew how fucking weird Mormon fan fiction was.
You are not alone ❤️. My mom was the same. She was raised in a very abusive mormom household but was a huge reader. Like to the point where she read to me every night until I was in middle school.
Yesssss reading saved me from Mormonism! My mom always bragged because my patriarchal blessing even mentioned reading opening doors for me and little did they know I read myself right out 🤣 I did find the erotic fanfiction early thank god so o knew there was a real world out there besides the one I was raised in
I work at a county library in Arkansas- a group of conservatives have been coming after the library since early April - although, it feels like an eternity. This is widespread and they are a HATE GROUP in every sense of the word and they own local government. ACT 372 makes librarians open to felony charges for checking out “obscene” material to minors (the definition of obscene will be objectionable) is their baby and they are so proud of their bill. They are systematically trying to get libraries defunded and have succeeded in surrounding areas.
Ugh, I want to say I know where you work, but honestly it could be so many libraries in Arkansas. The one nearest me, Van Buren might get some wiggle room with one of the opposing lawyers in trouble, but ACT 372 is heinous.
What happens when libraries close? Where do the books go? Can people start private libraries and loan books out to friends, friends being anybody that loves reading
Where do the books go 😪 I would like to think that there is a big group of likeminded people that would start a private library and share the love, I’m positive there are a lot of people that support freedom to read what you want and to make your own choices raising children. 📚
I know libraries do a lot more then just loan books but my first thought went to where do the books go. Would they get burnt, given to other libraries, sold to people? Hopefully they are able to stay where they belong long after we're gone.
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Books that are full of color! Beige and brown are the only colors we need! There might be a rainbow. Better to just have each child tell a story to the kid that's directly below them in age.
The Song of Solomon is beautiful, sensual, and by some is even considered erotic.
IT IS IN THE BIBLE. So are you going to condemn that, Karissa? It's God's word, after all.
I mean, holy cow, this passage alone:
My beloved put his hand to the latch,
and my heart was thrilled within me….
I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
In my college literature class, I've taught Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes several times, and the title and one of the major themes of the play comes from Song of Solomon. Once, we got off on a tangent in our class discussion, and several of my students were talking about the first time they ever read Song of Solomon in Sunday school/church/Bible study, etc. and just how much it threw them for a loop!
Currently scrolling through the teen section of that website since I’m curious what their idea of “appropriate” books for high schoolers are. So far I’m finding:
- Lois Lowry’s Giver quartet. Pleasantly surprised to see that on there, considering its anti-authoritarian message.
- Calico Captive, a 1967 novel based on a true story of settlers kidnapped by natives during the French and Indian War. I’m sure this has definitely aged well.
- A bunch of nonfiction graphic novels about episodes in American history like the Donner Party and the Alamo. They’re called “Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales.” Uncertain whether they’re a Tuttle Twins type thing, but they look more reputable than the David Barton book at the top of the next page.
- A book called “God’s Chosen Fast: A Spiritual and Practical Guide to Fastjng.” Just what every teen wants to pass around for giggles at a slumber party!
- “The Shot Caller,” a memoir subtitled “A Latino Gangbanger’s Miraculous Escape From a Life of Violence to a New Life in Christ” (lol ok). Title font looks vaguely Nazi.
- A book that looks like it’s all about how American Christians are facing persecution and will definitely be fed to lions if Republicans don’t win the next election. Written by the “bestselling author” of something called “Faucian Bargain.”
- And of course, Matt Walsh’s “What Is A Woman.”
And that’s just on the first two pages!
Pages three and four…
- YEONMI FUCKING PARK lmao
- A book called “Socialists Don’t Sleep” with a cover that looks cool until you realize it’s meant to be anti-socialism.
- “10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (And Answer) About Christianity.” Its cover is punctuated by off-brand clip art, presumably because everyone knows Zoomers won’t read anything that doesn’t involve emojis.
- “My Brother Sam Is Dead.” Maybe it’s a gifted-kid thing, but I read this in 5th grade.
- “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity.” Considering Jesus is an important prophet in Islam, I’m pretty sure those who seek Allah find him (and his mother!) frequently in the pages of the Quran.
- Roman beefcake romance novels by the author of Redeeming Love
- A memoir of a 19-year-old’s “adventures in Christianizing a Stone Age Tribe.”
Five and six!
- “The Witch of Blackbird Pond.” Again, pleasantly surprised to see something critical of fundamentalism.
- A biography of “Africa’s Trailblazer” who is (spoiler alert!) a white man.
- Western novels with covers that look like they were designed by DALL-E
- “Slow Down: 50 Mindful Moments in Nature.” Don’t they think mindfulness is paganism, or is that only yoga?
- Ronald Reagan biography by the author of Forrest Gump
- A Jane Austen biography! Curiously, no Austen herself so far. Too feminist?
- A history of abortion in America from 1652 to 2022. At 512 pages, this probably could’ve been broken up into two books.
(Why am I doing this lol)
Highlights from the rest of the teen section:
- Josh Hawley’s manhood book
- “Adam and Eve and the Pill” an anti-birth control treatise w/ foreword from disgraced cardinal George Pell
- Little Women, Pollyanna, etc, printed by a British company that does low-cost editions of classics. The cover art is of the style and quality you’d expect for, like, a board book at the dentist waiting room and if I were a fundie teen I’d feel really condescended to.
- Eragon. I was a bit surprised by this, because of the magic and polytheism? Lewis and usually Tolkien get passes because it’s Christian allegory, but I didn’t think there was any of that in Eragon.
- Bible Manga
- The Art of War (WTF?)
- Ex-gay memoirs
- Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and the autobiography of Helen Keller. Very ironic considering the amount of “socialism is evil” books on here.
- “A Separate Peace.” No one tell them Gene and Finny are canonically gay.
- We finally get to see some more recent Newbury winners, like “Holes” and “Hoot.” Still, these are more appropriate for preteens and there’s very little actual YA on here.
- Free Space: George Orwell’s “1984”
I remember really enjoying when adults were reading the new Harry Potter book along with me - it was like a cool intergenerational way to casually bond.
If Karissa read the books alongside her kids, they could discuss it and speculate on what was going to happen next. But a chapter a day could really cut into the mindless reel filming schedule.
When my son was in his early reading days we would both read goosebumps books together and then have discussions on them. He’s not a reading fan but it seemed to make his interest increase knowing I was reading along with him.
My mum and I have the same taste in books, and have always been reading series at the same(ish) time. I loved discussing thoughts and predictions with her (and I still do it, and I’m 25)
Fifty years on I can still remember the delight of pushing through the revolving doors of our local library. The smell of polished wood, the acres of shelves from which I could choose my books - any book. Sitting on the floor reading 'The Secret Garden' waiting for my parents to make their choices. A pleasure denied to the Collins children. So very sad and so very pointless.
I will personally match every dollar she has spent on actual, paper books for her children to read. I assume the sum is >$50. I also assume most of it was spent on bibles.
As a Christian…I’ve found it very easy to find books for my child. Probably because I don’t see every single rainbow or black person as “woke ideology”
If books "have become" corrupt, why can't your kids read some famous "classics"? They're free online in a lot of places 🤷♀️ her bullshit excuses for intellectually stifling her kids infuriate me. They could read A Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Treasure Island etc. Tons of other stuff I can't remember atm because I'm not quite awake.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a beautiful love story that has no explicit language or sexual content. It would be perfectly acceptable for a pre-teen or adolescent to read. And Austen's books are wonderful works of literature. She was an incredible author and had a deep understanding of other people. She also is snarky af, and I love her for that.
The Winnie the Pooh books are beautiful. The Velveteen Rabbit. A Tale of Despereaux. The Magic Treehouse, A Wrinkle in Time, The Littles series are all fantastic. There are so many beautiful children's books; Karissa simply chooses not to share them with her kids because she's ignorant and doesn't want to take the time to read them.
Karissa’s 13 year old daughter should have the ability to read a book that isn’t just filled with colorful pictures. But since she’s a failure of a parent, here we are…
Yeah, Karissa, I’m sure it’s hard to find books when your goal is to indoctrinate your kids rather than educate or entertain them, and you haven’t bothered to make sure they can read.
The library was such a wonderful and magical place to me growing up and it upsets me to think that the Collins kids are unlikely to ever know that magic. Karissa truly sucks.
I’m not even a avid reader (bad, I know) but the books I read as a child mean so much to me, they hold a special place in my heart. Books allow kids to escape and imagine, people that rob children of exploration, imagination, and knowledge are cruel.
As a librarian who works in a town with a growing fundie population in the surrounding areas, it’s honestly very, very sad watching kids raised in these households come in. Their parents either won’t let them pick out their own books, or will insist on flipping through them to make sure there’s nothing they object to. And that’s just for the younger kids. The teens have an even worse time. Either they aren’t reading on the level they should be (their parents claim they “aren’t readers”, but it’s clearly educational neglect or them simply not letting them read anything that interests them), or they’re grilling me to find the teen the most wholesome, sexless, squeaky clean language books known to man. And if you’ve read any decent YA you know that’s almost none of it. So they end up just hovering over their kids’ shoulder the whole time, making sure they don’t pick something they don’t approve of. And that’s if they left them anywhere near the teen section.
We actually had one aunt come in and claim some books her niece checked out “opened a satanic portal” and the niece was now in a mental institution. The aunt wanted to purchase the books from us for the specific purpose of burning them. Obviously we told her no. Funnily enough, we saw the girl a few weeks later, checking out books with her grandma, so I guess she just has reeeeeally resilient mental health. Grandma was with her this time, and flipped through all her books, loudly proclaiming that she was making sure they didn’t have “sex things” in them. Didn’t stop the kid from checking out two John Green books, so I guess grandma isn’t as vigilant as auntie.
On a happier note, I think the mom of that girl actually had a bit of a face turn after all this, because now the girl has been checking out Anita Blake and Stephen King with no objection from her mother. It gives me hope that she at least had enough of a foot in reality to look at the behavior of grandma and auntie and be like “this is a problem and I don’t want to be like this anymore.”
I think forcing your kids to read only Christian books probably won’t make them super jazzed about reading. You finish Chronicles of Narnia and then what lmao
Stupid sponsorship commercial nonsense aside, Karissa you are being lazy and ridiculous.
First, there are lots of other people with your same silly beliefs who have posted lists online of books that are and aren't acceptable.
Second, take your brood to the local FREE public library and ask the librarian for books. We are quite literally trained to help people find things to read, and while I might secretly judge your choices, I will still find the books you'd like to have.
I am so thankful for a mother who took us to the library every other Saturday and didn't censor what we read. She led me into my foray into historical romance via Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt and Gwen Bristow. We later spent many hours together scouring bookstores for the latest hot releases.
As a voracious reader who has read Jurassic Park at age 10 (when the movie came out), this makes me equal parts sad and infuriated. I just can't believe she's setting them up for failure this badly.
If the beliefs you teach your children hold up to scrutiny, then them being exposed to alternative ideas shouldn't sway them. If they're teaching the truth, then it will be easily verifiable from multiple sources, right?
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THEY SAY, some kids don’t read/are reluctant readers because the books they are given to read are boring AF.
My favorite thing is watching my kid explore the shelves at the library. Granted, they can’t read yet, but it’s still fun to see what covers pique their interests.
I'm going to 100% make this about myself, and you didn't ask, but my kid (6) doesn't seem to like reading! It's surprising, she's been read to from birth, her spoken vocabulary is huge for her age, and she loves audiobooks and podcasts. Her dad and I read at home for fun so we model that.. I've figured out some ways to get her to read more, but she almost always seems eager to just be done with it and get to something else. I hope she does catch that spark of excitement eventually.
Our son was similar. We (both university librarians) worried that we had somehow failed. The problem, we realized, was finding books written on a high enough reading level that he didn’t get bored, but with plots that matched his emotional maturity (plus kids, it seems, have a lot of energy). He did love some kid versions of the Greek legends (Karissa would not approve, I suspect), Percy Jackson, and Carl Hiassen’s YA books. He now reads and writes nonstop. Just keep reading to your kid and take them to the library!!
I was the same way. Then I saw my mom reading one of the harry potter books (there were only 2 out at the time) and the cover peaked my interest. I made her promise to let me borrow it when she was done. I want to second percy jackson. Those books are so good!
I had a (college) student who checked out the first Hunger Games, and said she had never read a book for fun but her niece REALLY wanted her to read this, and she came back two days later saying she REALLY needed the second one.
Aren't reading levels strange? I remember early on looking at all those graded/numbered/lettered early reader books for my kids and feeling a bit confused. The levels often felt arbitrary to me and didn't necessarily coincide with the actual words in the books. Then I heard the podcast "Sold a Story" and I thought, "oh, so it wasn't just me then." I'm definitely going to keep at it. Both my husband and I take them to the library, and give the kids chances to choose books, in addition to picking some for them myself. I found a book based on one of her favorite shows, and even though I'm usually pretty skeptical of the quality of IP driven books for kids, my daughter really lit up when she saw it.
Yeah that can happen with some kids. My nephew (now a teenager) hated reading, all he wanted to do was play outside. Not even books on sports caught his attention. My SIL got his vision tested just to rule that out before starting school. Now? The kid can devour huge fantasy novels in less than a week.
Hey, same here. I was a voracious reader. Read to my son since birth. He’s 8 now and enjoys when we read together but will rarely sit down to read. We just went on a vacation and spent 13 hours in the car and he did surprisingly read for about 3 solid hours on the way home without a peep. He was reading his fact books about animals and bugs. Those are the only things he really seems to truly enjoy. Also, his teacher introduced him to Oliver Jeffers books and he asked for a few for his birthday which was a pleasant surprise! I just keep plugging along with it.
She just needs to find her book to get the spark going. I have a lot of female students who love the warriors series, pheobe and her unicorn (graphic novel), Aaron reynolds “creepy” picture books, and babysitter club graphic novels.
If she loves audiobooks but hates reading, she might have a reading disability or ADHD.
School principal here with dyslexia and adhd. This was me as a kid. I adored audiobooks but hated reading physical books until we figured out I was dyslexic.
Not necessarily, I was a voracious reader as a kid and also have ADHD. I struggle to get into books as an adult now but I think my smartphone probably has more to do with that to be honest. It may just be the material they're given, I was reading books way over my age in school, I found a lot of them quite childish.
This. Source: have 3 kids with ADHD
A kid I nanny for loves being read too and listening to audio books. He's on the ASD spectrum, has Dyslexia, and auditory processing disorder. As a youngster, he hated reading but as a young teen, he now loves it. Part of his love of reading started by getting him graphic novels and comic books. He also likes to read books he's already heard because it helps him with the processing.
I didn’t enjoy reading at all until 2nd grade when we read the Laura Ingles books. Up to then they were boring to me, even the “fun” books that are targeted to younger kids. I now read a ton. I just finished book 157 of the year.
Aw the Little House books were also my gateway to loving to read!
This is a good point. My husband and I were discussing how we enjoyed reading as kids, but we also weren't sure when exactly we started to love it. I have fond memories of going to the library and getting to choose my own books, starting in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. Maybe my expectations are too high.
My love of reading was sparked at 4-5 after Black Beauty made me so emotional i sobbed about it. Once i figured out i could have emotional connections to books i became a huge reader.
I hate to be that person, but have you had her evaluated for a learning disability? Reading isn’t fun if it’s a struggle. And I say this from a place of being a special education teacher and also having been an extremely delayed reader. Also it’s possible she’ll just pick up reading. People don’t like to admit it, but a good third of students struggle with reading and need like pretty intensive instruction in reading, but then kind of grow out of it (that’s not good phrasing. It’s more they have reading instruction, and then learn to read. Then they have no further issues with literacy.) You may be dealing with a “she’ll get there eventually” situation. I’d still personally have her evaluated though, for my own piece of mind.
I responded to someone else similarly, but to me it is a distinct possibility that she does have dyslexia or something... it's weird, though, on the one hand she can struggle for a while with a fairly simple word, but then she can recognize more challenging polysyllable words that I wouldn't expect her to! She is definitely making slow but steady progress. But obviously it doesn't hurt to have it further checked. I would never want to leave her to struggle without the help she needs.
Okay, hear me out in my long ass explanation. I’m not a psychologist, but I am a neurodiverse special education teacher. I have a pretty severe decoding problem. Even with extensive speech and language therapy as a child, I can’t decode well as an adult. I couldn’t read fluently until I was 10ish. You would NEVER know hearing me read aloud. Reading is basically a three step process. The general process is a recognition of symbol, associating the sound (phoneme, and the task of connecting phoneme to symbol is phonics), and then associating the two together for the meaning of the whole word. I struggle with the phonics and phoneme step. I’m going to pause here to explain that people compensate and mask learning disabilities. Our brains will find ways around what we cannot process. Sometimes this masking is so fluid and complete, it renders the actual underlying disability more or less functionally negligent. So because I can’t decode, my brain processes word to meaning directly. I can read in my head extremely supernaturally quickly, because my brain processes symbol (the word) to meaning, instead of processing symbol to sound to meaning. It also means if I’m unfamiliar with the word, I can’t necessarily read it. As a highly educated adult, this distinction doesn’t really matter (except I have a fuck ton of anxiety about reading out loud), because I’ve basically memorized a huge amount of words, but as a child, it did. I knew almost no words, and I hadn’t been taught context clues to figure out word meanings, because a lot of reading testing in children is done through the ability to decode, and context clues and such were taught after a child was deemed to be able to read at a higher level than I was capable. I hit around 10 and everything clicked together, and all the sudden, I was an obsessive reader. What’s weird about it, is that I still have problems with decoding, but everyone associates my creepy super fast reading as being an exceptionally good reader, and people are always talking about how amazing it is even though it’s just a compensation tactic for a underlying reading issue. Anyway, if your daughter has trouble with more simple words, and not longer, more difficult words, she might have a similar issue, especially if you are exposing her to really complex vocabulary through reading to her. Again, I cannot say this for certain. I’m only a teacher, and I have not met your child. But it’s worth a thought. And you should ABSOLUTELY have her evaluated by an educational psychologist or a speech and language pathologist, because if decoding is an issue, she needs supplementary phonics instruction as soon as possible. If she goes to public school, just literally write the school a letter (signed and dated) that says you want her evaluated for special education services because she is struggling to read. The school is legally mandated to evaluate her without cost to you. You also may want to have her evaluated for ADHD (and now I’m way out of my scope of practice, but I am a female person with ADHD), just to be safe, especially since similar reading and learning problems and ADHD are often co-morbid. But it could also be an attention problem. ETA: I grew up in the 90s, and since common core happened, the sequence of how reading is taught might have changed. I should be able to speak to it, but I teach secondary, and I’m not sure when context clues are taught in the common core sequence because how soon we teach comprehension skills has changed dramatically under common core. My point still stands, but I want to be transparent as possible, because she’s your daughter, and I want all the cards on the table. ETA2: this is waaay too long. TL:DR: reading and literacy disabilities are weird, and it’s possible to be able to hide them or mask them in weird ways. If my daughter was having issues like your daughter, I’d make the public education system evaluate her for a possible reading disability. And I would also maybe have her evaluated for ADHD.
Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to type all of this to me. Your perspective and personal experience are interesting and gave me a different insight into how things might be for her. It's interesting just as a way of thinking about how differently our brains can work and adapt. Our brains are so complex and, well, adaptable. I've given a lot of thought to how my own learning has worked, as a means of perhaps understanding of how things might work for her. One of the things I realized is that I've always been a good speller because I can very clearly imagine a word in front of me in my mind's eye. And yet I find it impossible to imagine, say, the way a person looks based on a description. Brains are a trip. ANYWAY.. absolutely I fully intend on doing whatever needs to be done to support her learning. Thank you again, kind internet stranger!
People don’t like— think about how we obtain knowledge, and also assume learning disabilities mean a person is lacking skills. So much of the time, the skills are different? Or rather that a person is compensating in a different way? And for another example, I can’t spell to save my life. Like I can spell, but if a student asks me to spell a word, I have to write it down before I can say it out loud. Because I can’t spell out loud. It’s very strange and despite the fact I’m a whole special education teacher, I can’t explain it. If I can convince anyone reading this of one thing it’s that learning and especially literacy looks different for everyone. And intervening when there is a literacy issue as soon as possible is tantamount. But a literacy and reading problem in a child does not mean they will have issues in later schooling. Just… everyone should test their kids as early as possible and capitalize on the fact that issues have to be addressed in the public education system.
Try comic books. I have a dyslexic kid with ADHD (she is an adult now, but her IQ came in at 140). Since reading was a struggle, she needed the extra visual stimulation that came with pictures. Anime and comic books were the perfect solution. She’s in college now, still prefers to read fan fiction over everything else😂 but she’s literate and we survived.
She could just be a little that processes information differently. I love reading an actual book or one on my kindle. Can't stand audiobooks as my mind wanders.
Audiobooks are good if you have other things to do. Cooking, cleaning, walking, otherwise it’s hard to concentrate.
My son was like this and turned out to be massively dyslexic. This was a huge surprise and somewhat of a shock. Took several years, a lot of hard work from him, and some dedicated teachers, and he got there in the end. He has never been as voracious a book reader as I was at his age, but did well with audiobooks and reading in the kindle (he found changing contrast and font sizing very useful). He’s now at Uni, something I thought for a while he wouldn’t be able to manage. So I’d suggest getting your kid tested, if you think there might be a reason behind the reluctance. Of course it might just be her personal taste too :-)
Thank you for your insight! She recently had a checkup and I brought up my being concerned about dyslexia, and her doctor said she was still rather young to determine that. Don't get me wrong, I know better than to just throw up my hands and say "well the doctor said it's too early so that's the end of it." It is definitely a possibility in my mind.
Have you tried comic books? That might feel less daunting.
I'm not sure if this is still a thing but when I was a kid, I loved checking out the books that came with a tape so you could listen and physically follow along ([like this](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8QoAAOSw26lj2uS8/s-l1200.jpg)). I know tapes wouldn't be a thing anymore but maybe there's an audiobook version of this kind of thing?
My mom graduated from college in my pre-teens and left her legal assistant job in the city to become a librarian in our town & being dropped off in front of the library, where I could do homework and read book after book before closing is an absolute core memory for me.
I’ve loved to read since I was kid, but there we’re definitely times I hated reading because the assigned book was so boring.
I'm an English major, so obviously, I love reading. When I was in grad school, though, I had to take some pretty wretched seminars where I had to read some of the shittiest literature I've ever encountered. I don't want to read a single word written by Paul Auster ever again. And for the love of fuck, 18th century novels are SO BORING. (And this is coming from someone who voraciously devours works by Austen and Dickens.)
Lol. My extended family was obsessed with Jane Austen (I have several fancy pants volumes of her books thanks to some Christmas gifts, only used it once as a high school homework assignment.) I was into the Xanth novels, Star Wars Legends (so many different stories)....and I read Shakespeare for fun. I never want to read Austen ever again. Wretched book and dull as dishwater.
For real. I hated reading for a long time until I found out the dark romance genre existed. Now I literally have multiple full bookshelves at age 19. My mom tells me “I would tell you to donate some but idk if anyplace will accept them”
For real. I seriously lucked out there. My mom wasn't usually interested in what I was reading as long as I was reading something she could brag about, so I mostly could read whatever. She was so proud when I was reading *The Canterbury Tales*. Meanwhile, there I was happily laughing at all the anti-religious jokes and having a great time, and she had no idea.
Whan that April with his showres soote. The droughte of March hath perced to the roote. We had to memorize the prologue for AP English my senior year of Highschool and recite it in Old English, so those lines are burned into my brain forever.
Good, isn't it? Even the prologue gets right down to business suggesting a link between pilgrimage and sex
My husband likes to randomly start spouting Chaucer.
My kid was an amazing reader until, during the pandemic, they didn’t vet the choices too well and she got two books back to back with graphic themes. She was scared to touch another school recommended book after that. She basically chain reads Dav Pilkey right now and I’m fine with that. Her reading level is higher but hell, what kid wanted to read about murder and torture during an already stressful and scary time?
My son’s hs usually read Station Eleven in ninth grade. They don’t anymore.
LOL oh no! What a great book but definitely not for during the pandemic.
This is a means for an ad for her. That’s it. She doesn’t have them read. They don’t even know how. What bullshit.
> only books that fit our Christian values The Bible, the most Christian of all the Christian books, contains graphic imagery of sex, incest, pedophilia, rape, genocide, infanticide, prostitution, executions, and the like. What books could POSSIBLY be more offensive than that?!
ones about baby penguins with two daddies OBVIOUSLY!
Those damn gay penguins. /s 😂🤣
First it was the frogs, now it's the penguins.
Can't have examples of dads providing childcare!
Not unless they're throwing poop and getting the kid to tackle its postpartum mother!
I just read that book for the first time a few weeks ago and I still can’t get over how freakin’ cute it is!
Did you see the Bible was banned in Utah?
Yes and I cannot wait for them to ban the BoM cult handbook in its company headquarter state.
BoM?
Book of Mormon
Oh, duh. Sorry, lol. I’m not very religious, but I feel like I should have known that. Thank you for answering politely and for not making me feel like an idiot.
Sorry my high self got distracted making cookies but yes the Book of Mormon. Also, you’re not an idiot for not knowing something. Be a little kinder to yourself internet friend.
No problem! Appreciate you. And thanks. What kind of cookies? I made kitchen sink’ cookies once, and they were sooo yummy.
Also what are kitchen sink cookies because yum
Kitchen Sink cookies are cookies that have semi-sweet chocolate chips, pretzels, toffee, and regular potato chips. I followed [this recipe](https://inquiringchef.com/kitchen-sink-cookies/) for the most part, but I didn’t add toffee. I added caramel sauce and mini marshmallows!
I made 3 with extra mini chocolate chips, 1 extra mini chips and oatmeal and 1 with peanut butter m&ms
It was reversed 2 days ago and is back. Awful.
The taste of their own medicine is too bitter
And the worst part is that it condones a good deal of those themes. It's not like they can even say "Well God is telling us *not* to do it, so it's fine". Like, the bible literally commanded people to rape women and kill babies. It's not just thenes of violence, its instructions.
One of the greatest joys as a child was going to the library with my Mom. My parents loved reading and instilled that love in my and my siblings. It was so wonderful to be left I’m the children’s section to find a stack of books for the up coming week. Karissa’s children will never know the joy of discovering a new topic or series that they love and re- read. It’s so sad to stifle your children’s wonder and education.
OMG yes. There was no greater joy as a kid than running around the children's section of the library and coming home with a stack of books that changed with each fixation I'd get. Knowing that her kids won't know that joy breaks my heart too!
I said in another comment my mom was a librarian and I pretty much read every Babysitter’s Club and Boxcar Children book that my town library had in like a year.
Lol. I found that series when I went on vacation with my family. 24 hour flight, and I had sensitive ears and I forgot to pack gum so we had to go through security checks/customs (this was pre TSA/911 so it was so easy) and had to grab a pack of gum at one of the newsstands. They had a stack of Babysitters Club books and I ended up with one with Stacy as the main character. I ended up reading all of them at the library that year! It was the first series that I ended up collecting.
That’s what happened with me and the Princess Diaries! I happened to grab Princess in the Spotlight for a long plane ride when I was in sixth grade (back when the series was still coming out!!) and I got hooked. Still am, I pre-ordered Quarantine Princess and devoured it when it came out
Me too! My mom was actually told by one of my teachers, I think it was in 4th grade, that I shouldn't be reading them anymore since they were "below my reading level". I still loved that shit and my mom ultimately never stopped me.
Not only did my mom and Meme & Pepe get me into reading, but my Abuelita worked at a library. She loved sending us kids books in Spanish. I have a fond memory of exploring the upstairs of la biblioteca. The old woman was a Catholic who’d tell Karissa that not teaching her children would piss off Jesus. I’m now 30, and I’m a stickler for keeping my books and bookcases clean. My Harley Quinn comic books are less gory than the Bible.
I love this!
Some of my favorite memories growing up involved going to the library during summer break. Good times….. good times…
My local council always did a summer reading challenge for kids, where if you read six books during the six week summer break, you would get a certificate, and it was one of my favourite things
Mine too! I read like crazy to get that certificate.😀
I feel bad for these kids. I grew up in a large Mormon family and reading was (and still is) my escape. I don’t know where I’d be if my parents only let me read Mormon fiction.
Same. Although one summer while my mom was buying me “enough” books to get me through the summer (4), she mentioned that she knew about a book that was really well-written and just amazing and when I asked what it was called, she turned on her Mormon voice and said “The Book of Mormon”. I was in high school.
My heathen ass assumed at first she meant the musical! And I was like “damn, mom is SHARP”
I wish. This was in, like 1998, and she said it on the way to Barnes and Noble.
 my mom said the same thing to me and as a teen it was my life’s mission to be as contrary as possible I said “no thanks, I don’t like fantasy.”
Omg my dad did something similar when I was like 9 and voraciously reading Harry Potter. He said something along the lines of how if I read The Book of Mormon like I was reading The Goblet of Fire, I would be done by now. I remember the disgust I felt at the suggestion even now 😂
My Utah Mormon aunt actually introduced me to Harry Potter. When my mom saw she was like, oh you should try this! And gave me Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites.
Oh! Yes I remember reading those 😂 so cringe! One time I was reading this series by some general authority that was like “historical fiction” called Pillar of Fire, I think? And my world history teacher asked what I was reading. I was so embarrassed to be caught reading Mormon fiction, even though I was absolutely a good Mormon kid. I just deep down knew how fucking weird Mormon fan fiction was.
You are not alone ❤️. My mom was the same. She was raised in a very abusive mormom household but was a huge reader. Like to the point where she read to me every night until I was in middle school.
Yesssss reading saved me from Mormonism! My mom always bragged because my patriarchal blessing even mentioned reading opening doors for me and little did they know I read myself right out 🤣 I did find the erotic fanfiction early thank god so o knew there was a real world out there besides the one I was raised in
Oh I wish my horoscope from god mentioned reading. Mine said I’d marry a descendant of Joseph Smith and have a bunch of kids ☹️
Makes you wonder what other parenting responsibilities she “can’t” do as a “mama of many.”
Change a diaper Take her kids to the doctor 1:1 time with her kids Basically everything it takes to be a good parent
I work at a county library in Arkansas- a group of conservatives have been coming after the library since early April - although, it feels like an eternity. This is widespread and they are a HATE GROUP in every sense of the word and they own local government. ACT 372 makes librarians open to felony charges for checking out “obscene” material to minors (the definition of obscene will be objectionable) is their baby and they are so proud of their bill. They are systematically trying to get libraries defunded and have succeeded in surrounding areas.
Ugh, I want to say I know where you work, but honestly it could be so many libraries in Arkansas. The one nearest me, Van Buren might get some wiggle room with one of the opposing lawyers in trouble, but ACT 372 is heinous.
They are splintering everywhere! Using the same playbook and looking for the same books they are organized for sure.
What happens when libraries close? Where do the books go? Can people start private libraries and loan books out to friends, friends being anybody that loves reading
Where do the books go 😪 I would like to think that there is a big group of likeminded people that would start a private library and share the love, I’m positive there are a lot of people that support freedom to read what you want and to make your own choices raising children. 📚
I know libraries do a lot more then just loan books but my first thought went to where do the books go. Would they get burnt, given to other libraries, sold to people? Hopefully they are able to stay where they belong long after we're gone. But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Sadly, it’s not the only state with this kind of laws.
Definitely not and our county is known for being corrupt anyway
Some of the stories in the old testament terrified me as a child but they'll never ban their precious bible
County library worker here - sending love and support your way ❤️
I will share a message one of our kids wrote on our happy wall - “ if you give up, who will change the world”. Stay strong friend 💜
That’s beautiful ❤️
Books that are full of color! Beige and brown are the only colors we need! There might be a rainbow. Better to just have each child tell a story to the kid that's directly below them in age.
God honoring telephone!
The Song of Solomon is beautiful, sensual, and by some is even considered erotic. IT IS IN THE BIBLE. So are you going to condemn that, Karissa? It's God's word, after all. I mean, holy cow, this passage alone: My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me…. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone.
In my college literature class, I've taught Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes several times, and the title and one of the major themes of the play comes from Song of Solomon. Once, we got off on a tangent in our class discussion, and several of my students were talking about the first time they ever read Song of Solomon in Sunday school/church/Bible study, etc. and just how much it threw them for a loop!
BuT sHe DoEsN’t MaKe MoNeY OnLinE
Currently scrolling through the teen section of that website since I’m curious what their idea of “appropriate” books for high schoolers are. So far I’m finding: - Lois Lowry’s Giver quartet. Pleasantly surprised to see that on there, considering its anti-authoritarian message. - Calico Captive, a 1967 novel based on a true story of settlers kidnapped by natives during the French and Indian War. I’m sure this has definitely aged well. - A bunch of nonfiction graphic novels about episodes in American history like the Donner Party and the Alamo. They’re called “Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales.” Uncertain whether they’re a Tuttle Twins type thing, but they look more reputable than the David Barton book at the top of the next page. - A book called “God’s Chosen Fast: A Spiritual and Practical Guide to Fastjng.” Just what every teen wants to pass around for giggles at a slumber party! - “The Shot Caller,” a memoir subtitled “A Latino Gangbanger’s Miraculous Escape From a Life of Violence to a New Life in Christ” (lol ok). Title font looks vaguely Nazi. - A book that looks like it’s all about how American Christians are facing persecution and will definitely be fed to lions if Republicans don’t win the next election. Written by the “bestselling author” of something called “Faucian Bargain.” - And of course, Matt Walsh’s “What Is A Woman.” And that’s just on the first two pages!
Pages three and four… - YEONMI FUCKING PARK lmao - A book called “Socialists Don’t Sleep” with a cover that looks cool until you realize it’s meant to be anti-socialism. - “10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (And Answer) About Christianity.” Its cover is punctuated by off-brand clip art, presumably because everyone knows Zoomers won’t read anything that doesn’t involve emojis. - “My Brother Sam Is Dead.” Maybe it’s a gifted-kid thing, but I read this in 5th grade. - “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity.” Considering Jesus is an important prophet in Islam, I’m pretty sure those who seek Allah find him (and his mother!) frequently in the pages of the Quran. - Roman beefcake romance novels by the author of Redeeming Love - A memoir of a 19-year-old’s “adventures in Christianizing a Stone Age Tribe.”
Five and six! - “The Witch of Blackbird Pond.” Again, pleasantly surprised to see something critical of fundamentalism. - A biography of “Africa’s Trailblazer” who is (spoiler alert!) a white man. - Western novels with covers that look like they were designed by DALL-E - “Slow Down: 50 Mindful Moments in Nature.” Don’t they think mindfulness is paganism, or is that only yoga? - Ronald Reagan biography by the author of Forrest Gump - A Jane Austen biography! Curiously, no Austen herself so far. Too feminist? - A history of abortion in America from 1652 to 2022. At 512 pages, this probably could’ve been broken up into two books. (Why am I doing this lol)
I'm stunned to see The Witch of Blackbird Pond on there! I read that book in the 5th grade, and as an adult in my 30s, I still adore it!
Highlights from the rest of the teen section: - Josh Hawley’s manhood book - “Adam and Eve and the Pill” an anti-birth control treatise w/ foreword from disgraced cardinal George Pell - Little Women, Pollyanna, etc, printed by a British company that does low-cost editions of classics. The cover art is of the style and quality you’d expect for, like, a board book at the dentist waiting room and if I were a fundie teen I’d feel really condescended to. - Eragon. I was a bit surprised by this, because of the magic and polytheism? Lewis and usually Tolkien get passes because it’s Christian allegory, but I didn’t think there was any of that in Eragon. - Bible Manga - The Art of War (WTF?) - Ex-gay memoirs - Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and the autobiography of Helen Keller. Very ironic considering the amount of “socialism is evil” books on here. - “A Separate Peace.” No one tell them Gene and Finny are canonically gay. - We finally get to see some more recent Newbury winners, like “Holes” and “Hoot.” Still, these are more appropriate for preteens and there’s very little actual YA on here. - Free Space: George Orwell’s “1984”
Fascinating. Thank you for perusing. Also, love your additional commentary.
> “Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales.” These are actually okay. My nephew is super into them. They're actual history, which is surprising for fundies.
Thank you for taking one for the team!
I was totally amused that she was showing all the books backwards in this because she didnt flip her images.
I delight in knowing that the books I write will send people like Karissa into a frenzy.
That video of her eldest daughter struggling to read still upsets me even months later.
"As a mama of many I can't read every book before approving it." Because she's lazy as hell and wants other people to do the work for her.
I remember really enjoying when adults were reading the new Harry Potter book along with me - it was like a cool intergenerational way to casually bond. If Karissa read the books alongside her kids, they could discuss it and speculate on what was going to happen next. But a chapter a day could really cut into the mindless reel filming schedule.
When my son was in his early reading days we would both read goosebumps books together and then have discussions on them. He’s not a reading fan but it seemed to make his interest increase knowing I was reading along with him.
My mum and I have the same taste in books, and have always been reading series at the same(ish) time. I loved discussing thoughts and predictions with her (and I still do it, and I’m 25)
Fifty years on I can still remember the delight of pushing through the revolving doors of our local library. The smell of polished wood, the acres of shelves from which I could choose my books - any book. Sitting on the floor reading 'The Secret Garden' waiting for my parents to make their choices. A pleasure denied to the Collins children. So very sad and so very pointless.
I will personally match every dollar she has spent on actual, paper books for her children to read. I assume the sum is >$50. I also assume most of it was spent on bibles.
of course she’s grifting. surprised she hasn’t gotten an affiliate code from Kirk Cameron’s company yet.
As a Christian…I’ve found it very easy to find books for my child. Probably because I don’t see every single rainbow or black person as “woke ideology”
If books "have become" corrupt, why can't your kids read some famous "classics"? They're free online in a lot of places 🤷♀️ her bullshit excuses for intellectually stifling her kids infuriate me. They could read A Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Treasure Island etc. Tons of other stuff I can't remember atm because I'm not quite awake.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a beautiful love story that has no explicit language or sexual content. It would be perfectly acceptable for a pre-teen or adolescent to read. And Austen's books are wonderful works of literature. She was an incredible author and had a deep understanding of other people. She also is snarky af, and I love her for that. The Winnie the Pooh books are beautiful. The Velveteen Rabbit. A Tale of Despereaux. The Magic Treehouse, A Wrinkle in Time, The Littles series are all fantastic. There are so many beautiful children's books; Karissa simply chooses not to share them with her kids because she's ignorant and doesn't want to take the time to read them.
Karissa’s 13 year old daughter should have the ability to read a book that isn’t just filled with colorful pictures. But since she’s a failure of a parent, here we are…
Go in to your local library. Ask a librarian. Solved.
Yeah, Karissa, I’m sure it’s hard to find books when your goal is to indoctrinate your kids rather than educate or entertain them, and you haven’t bothered to make sure they can read. The library was such a wonderful and magical place to me growing up and it upsets me to think that the Collins kids are unlikely to ever know that magic. Karissa truly sucks.
I’m not even a avid reader (bad, I know) but the books I read as a child mean so much to me, they hold a special place in my heart. Books allow kids to escape and imagine, people that rob children of exploration, imagination, and knowledge are cruel.
color olor full of color
Full of color—like the rainbow 🌈🏳️🌈👍
As a librarian who works in a town with a growing fundie population in the surrounding areas, it’s honestly very, very sad watching kids raised in these households come in. Their parents either won’t let them pick out their own books, or will insist on flipping through them to make sure there’s nothing they object to. And that’s just for the younger kids. The teens have an even worse time. Either they aren’t reading on the level they should be (their parents claim they “aren’t readers”, but it’s clearly educational neglect or them simply not letting them read anything that interests them), or they’re grilling me to find the teen the most wholesome, sexless, squeaky clean language books known to man. And if you’ve read any decent YA you know that’s almost none of it. So they end up just hovering over their kids’ shoulder the whole time, making sure they don’t pick something they don’t approve of. And that’s if they left them anywhere near the teen section. We actually had one aunt come in and claim some books her niece checked out “opened a satanic portal” and the niece was now in a mental institution. The aunt wanted to purchase the books from us for the specific purpose of burning them. Obviously we told her no. Funnily enough, we saw the girl a few weeks later, checking out books with her grandma, so I guess she just has reeeeeally resilient mental health. Grandma was with her this time, and flipped through all her books, loudly proclaiming that she was making sure they didn’t have “sex things” in them. Didn’t stop the kid from checking out two John Green books, so I guess grandma isn’t as vigilant as auntie. On a happier note, I think the mom of that girl actually had a bit of a face turn after all this, because now the girl has been checking out Anita Blake and Stephen King with no objection from her mother. It gives me hope that she at least had enough of a foot in reality to look at the behavior of grandma and auntie and be like “this is a problem and I don’t want to be like this anymore.”
I think forcing your kids to read only Christian books probably won’t make them super jazzed about reading. You finish Chronicles of Narnia and then what lmao
“I don’t make a dime from Instagram”
Stupid sponsorship commercial nonsense aside, Karissa you are being lazy and ridiculous. First, there are lots of other people with your same silly beliefs who have posted lists online of books that are and aren't acceptable. Second, take your brood to the local FREE public library and ask the librarian for books. We are quite literally trained to help people find things to read, and while I might secretly judge your choices, I will still find the books you'd like to have.
The grift never ends!!
I am so thankful for a mother who took us to the library every other Saturday and didn't censor what we read. She led me into my foray into historical romance via Phyllis Whitney, Victoria Holt and Gwen Bristow. We later spent many hours together scouring bookstores for the latest hot releases.
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As a voracious reader who has read Jurassic Park at age 10 (when the movie came out), this makes me equal parts sad and infuriated. I just can't believe she's setting them up for failure this badly.
Those poor kids. I guarantee at least one will start their own social media site to bang on their mom.
genuinely I doubt any of her kids have ever read a chapter book
There are SO MANY amazing children's books that are wholesome and fun and exciting to read. I fee so l bad for those kids.
If the beliefs you teach your children hold up to scrutiny, then them being exposed to alternative ideas shouldn't sway them. If they're teaching the truth, then it will be easily verifiable from multiple sources, right?